[Reproducible-commits] [source-date-epoch-spec] 01/04: reword rationale a bit to add more reasoning and cut some redundant wording

[Ximin Luo]

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infinity0 pushed a commit to branch master
in repository source-date-epoch-spec.

commit a5ce201ffa5f70d2a3d6eda8db323248a4c038b6
Author: Ximin Luo <infinity0 at debian.org>
Date:   Thu Aug 27 16:41:51 2015 +0200

    reword rationale a bit to add more reasoning and cut some redundant wording
---
 source-date-epoch-spec.xml | 31 +++++++++++++++++++------------
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/source-date-epoch-spec.xml b/source-date-epoch-spec.xml
index 807d268..b00aeb9 100644
--- a/source-date-epoch-spec.xml
+++ b/source-date-epoch-spec.xml
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@
 		</para>
 		<itemizedlist>
 		<listitem><para>
-			Provides the age of the software.
+			Provides a rough indication of the age of the software.
 		</para></listitem>
 		<listitem><para>
 			Provides some indication of the environment that was
@@ -134,19 +134,26 @@
 		</para></listitem>
 		</itemizedlist>
 		<para>
-			However, these are not only unreliable indicators of
-			age given that software can be arbitrarily rebuilt,
-			they are redundant or meaningless in a build that is
-			reproducible given it will always build identically. In
-			any case, more-specific information about the build
-			environment is required if users wish to reliably
-			reproduce the binaries.
+			However, such hints are misleading indicators of the
+			information they intend to convey, since software can
+			be arbitrarily rebuilt. Notably, the inaccuracy becomes
+			more and more severe as time passes, which is not a good
+			property to have for any program or process.
+		</para>
+		<para>
+			Furthermore, the information is redundant in a build
+			that is reproducible: if the only difference in the build
+			result is the embedded build date, then this difference
+			<emphasis>is</emphasis> meaningless and should be
+			removed, or replaced with a meaningful date.
 		</para>
 		<para>
-			The current timestamp is therefore not only an
-			impediment to a reproducible build, it is incomplete,
-			misleading and offering little useful infomation to end
-			users or developers.
+			In any case, more specific information about the build
+			environment is required if users wish to reliably
+			reproduce the binaries. Indeed, standards for conveying
+			such metadata <emphasis>precisely</emphasis> are being
+			developed elsewhere at the time of writing; but they are
+			outside of the scope of this particular document.
 		</para>
 	</sect2>
 	<sect2>

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